


Here is No Water

by scribomania



Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Multi, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, at it with the obsessive word counting again, team Hodgson for the win
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-22 13:16:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22816879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribomania/pseuds/scribomania
Summary: An ongoing collection of ficlets and drabbles first posted onmy tumblr
Relationships: Thomas Jopson/Lt Edward Little
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	1. Sweets for Sweethearts (Joplittle)

Jopson has a sweet tooth. 

Edwards discovers this by chance, Christmas morning ‘46. To mark the day, the Captain has ordered the leftover shortbread be shared among the men and Edward watches Jopson’s eyelids flutter shut as he nibbles at the biscuit, one hand resting softly on Diggle’s stove.

They don’t have to resort to rationing yet, but stores are far from plenty; Edward scrapes the jam off his breakfast biscuits, pockets a teacake in the Great Cabin, hoards his share of tinfoiled chocolates like a treasure. 

Jopson is bashful, embarrassed, at first, but Edward persists and Jopson blushes as their fingers meet around the chocolate.


	2. Transcendental (Hodgson)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (200 words, written for baby boy George Hodgson’s birthday)
> 
> _transcendental; adjective.  
>  1\. transcendent, surpassing, or superior.  
> 2\. being beyond ordinary or common experience, thought, or belief; supernatural._

In his dreams, he still sometimes hears the voices: the solemn harmonies and the sweet cadences, the rise in his chest and his small hand holding onto his aunt's sleeve. The perfection of the moment is preserved within his mind, as crystal-clear and pristine as the stained glass windows high above his head in a church a lifetime ago. 

*

George has lost count of the calendar weeks ago, one featureless day blending into the next; he doesn't think anything of it when Billy Gibson asks him to step belowdecks for a moment to tend to a pressing issue. 

What greets him when he sets foot onto the fo'c'sle is nothing short of a cacophony: the shouting of two dozen men, the noisy whoops eventually solidifying into the first couple bars of “he's a jolly good fellow”; Above it all, Irving's determined tenor, trying to herd the ruckus into something resembling a choir. Implausibly, Edward Little seems to be involved as well, shuffling his feet and pretending to move his lips to the music. 

It's not perfect, far from it, but the song sinks into George’s bones like hot grog, slow and sweet. The warmth remains for days afterwards.


	3. Allow (Joplittle)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (150 words)

„Sir, let me just – your collar,“ Tom says, and there is really nothing out of place with lieutenant Little's collar, but Tom's hands are already moving of their own accord and he cannot make himself stop. 

As always, Little lets him, raises his chin to allow Tom to fuss at his neck, doesn't mention it if Tom's fingers brush against the soft skin of his throat more than is strictly necessary. His eyes are half closed and with the mop of dark hair falling over his eyes he reminds Tom of nothing so much as Neptune, the same doggish expression of patient, wordless gratitude. 

Tom wonders where the lieutenant tucks it away in his mind, what story he tells himself to turn what passes between them into something ordinary, to let himself have that little kindness. 

“All set, sir,” Tom says, and smiles brightly through the brittleness in his voice.

**Author's Note:**

> “Here is no water” is a line from T. S. Eliot’s _The Waste Land_ , an eternal favorite and particularly fitting for these sad, lost boys:
> 
> _After the torchlight red on sweaty faces  
>  After the frosty silence in the gardens  
> After the agony in stony places  
> The shouting and the crying  
> Prison and palace and reverberation  
> Of thunder of spring over distant mountains  
> He who was living is now dead  
> We who were living are now dying  
> With a little patience  
> _


End file.
